7 Reasons Why Every Great Website Needs Visual Appeal

It’s not enough to have great written content. A website needs something dynamic and eye-catching to make visitors be drawn to your page in the first place.

The human brain processes visual data 60 000 times faster than text. A surprising 90% of the information our brains process is visual. 70% of our sensory receptors are in our eyes.

It’s not just about getting them to look at your website it’s about making a sale. Consumers who watch a video about a product are 85% more likely to buy it.

Keep reading to see 7 reasons why you need a website with an amazing visual appeal. Check out our tips on how to make that happen.

Visual Appeal is Vital

37% of marketers believe visual content is the most important aspect of any marketing strategy. Only blogging ranked higher at 38%.

People will recall 65% of details about visual content up to three days later whereas only 10% of auditory information alone is retained that long. Visual content does help individuals remember information they listened to or read in correlation with it.

This means you need a website aesthetic that’s visually appealing for visitors to find it memorable.

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

Studies of eye-tracking have indicated that people spend more time soaking in the pictures, infographics and visual content on a site than they do reading the text.

Social media sites prove the importance of visually appealing content.

On Twitter tweets that contain photographs, videos or visual content are 150% more likely to be retweeted. Facebook posts with images are 2.3x more likely to have reader engagement.

Having a dynamic website design that catches and keeps a visitors attention can be done with the right pictures, videos and thoughtful planning.

Videos Rule

By next year Cisco projects that nearly 80% of web traffic will be from videos. 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read content.

Millennials are particularly fond of video content. 74% of them prefer it when they’re comparison shopping and 60% when reading a newsletter or website content.

Companies that use video content on their website experience 41% more visits than websites that don’t post video content. 64% of consumers have chosen to make a purchase because of a video they watched on social media.

A Reputation with Visual Appeal

You create your products and deliver your services in a professional and personable way. Your website should be the same. It needs to keep with your company vision and reputation.

You don’t have to be stiff and have no sense of humor. It doesn’t have to be all business and no play but you still want to make sure everything posted is in line with the values and vision of your brand.

Your reputation is everything and it doesn’t take much to tarnish it for a long time, sometimes irreparably. People want to be entertained, informed and satisfied without being offended or insulted.

Think Before You Post

In today’s world screaming for political correctness yet insisting on pushing the limits it can be hard to know what’s going to be offensive to someone. Often things are taken out of context or posted in ignorance rather than malice.

Screen and assess all visual and written content so you always represent your brand in the way you want.

Bad content can lead to bad reviews and a hit to your brand reputation. This can also hit your profits. Think before you post so you don’t have to do damage control later.

Attention Seeking

This can’t be done with a wall of words. You need exciting, interesting content that’s visually appealing. It needs to be easy to find and fast too.

Video can grab and keep viewers attention much longer than other content. In fact, two-thirds of visitors continue watching marketing videos after 30 seconds. North Americans spend an average of 8.4 minutes a day watching YouTube videos.

The trick is to make sure they’re glad they watched it at the end. This gets them to come back for more and encourages interaction and engagement.

People share video content they like on social media. You can gain a reputation and loyal following by delivering entertaining and informative unique content.

Good for Business

Having visually appealing content, especially videos is good for business in many ways. The biggest one that owners care about is conversion rate.

65% of decision-makers for business spend time on a website after viewing a brand video. 39% of business decision makers contact a vendor after viewing their video.

Consumers would rather have a video explain it while entertaining them than to have to read through a catalog or manual. You make a better connection through video and visually appealing content than through any words you post.

Creating dynamic, information-rich, engaging video content can take your business to levels you never thought possible.

Sites like Headspace became a quarter of a million dollar business by providing interactive meditation video content with a game aspect to promote consumer engagement.

Get Noticed Be Remembered

The human brain processes and recognizes images in just 13 milliseconds. Choosing images that reflect your brand can grab their attention quickly. It doesn’t just help get consumers attention it also gets the attention of search engines.

60% of consumers say they’re more likely to make a purchase from a site that provided images when searched.

Visual Appeal for SEO

Your images and videos can improve your search engine ranking if you ensure they are tagged with appropriate keywords, load quickly and are uploaded frequently.

They make your page more relevant and provide visual appeal, which helps you rank higher in search engine results.

Using the right images and visual content can take your page from an obscure site that no one has heard of to one that’s gone viral with a loyal following.